UK: Jennifer Drew Lectures on the Successes [& Works in Progress] of the 1970s Feminist Movement

Jennifer Drew Lecture Series: Did the 1970s Women's Liberation Movement Achieve All of Its Aims?

About the Tutor, Jennifer Drew: Jennifer Drew (BA Women’s Studies and History) is an independent researcher on male violence against women. She is a consultant to Scottish Women Against Pornography, is an active member of the campaign group Truth About Rape and was formerly chair of Object, a campaign organisation focusing on women's rights. She has contributed articles to Rain and Thunder, a radical feminist journal of discussion and activism , The Fword, a contemporary UK Feminism on-line magazine and is a regular contributor to the Global Sisterhood Network, a research resource for feminists from around the world working together to improve women's lives.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The first in a series of four eveing lectures exploring the origins, goals and ultimate trajectory of the women’s liberation movement. This introductory session aims to provide an overview of the movement’s main aims and examine why it spontaneously arose during the late 1960's and early 1970's, asking too whether the Women's Liberation Movement was 'man-hating' as the media then claimed.

This the second session in the four part lecture series exploring the origins, goals and ultimate trajectory of the women’s liberation movement. This lecture will detail the calls made by feminists for 'freedom for all women from intimidation by the threat or use of male violence.' Asking whether the Women's Liberation Movement achieved this aim or if male violence against women has instead been co-opted to become 'violence against the individual', the session will also question whether the oft-quoted expression 'the personal is political' is still relevant.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The third session in this four part lecture series will document how the Women’s Liberation movement demanded an end to media representations of women and girls as sexualised objects. But has equality between the sexes really changed the way femininity is depicted in advertising, film or television? Or has the myth that a woman’s greatest power and asset lies in her sexual attractiveness to man not only persisted, but been amplified in recent decades?

The final lecture in this series will look at the impact of recent political and cultural shifts on the status of women in society and other possible implications of these changes on the enduring legacy of the women’s liberation movement. Do the pervasive notions of ‘choice’ and ‘individuality’ which rest at the heart of the contemporary neo-liberal social order render questions of sex irrelevant to power and politics? And how far can it be said that feminism ought to be reconstituted as part of the wider Humanist project of achieving equality for all regardless of ethnicity, sexuality, class or gender?~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~